Biologist Jonathan Allen forced to remove parasite worm from cheek with forceps, now an expert on parasites

AN AMERICAN biologist has become a parasite expert after he was forced to use forceps to remove a worm that had lived in his mouth for months.

An image of the parasitic worm 'gongylonema pulchruma', after it was removed from Mr Allen's mouth. The creature usually lives in livestock, and Mr Allen's case is only the 13th in the US. Picture: Supplied

AN AMERICAN biologist has become a parasite expert after he was forced to use forceps to remove a worm that had lived in his cheek and mouth for months.

Jonathan Allen, an assistant biology professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, first realised he had become home to the parasite 'gongylonema pulchruma' after discovering a "rough patch" in the fleshy part of his cheek while teaching class, he told Huffington Post Live.

"The first three months, it was in the back of the throat in places I could touch with my tongue," Mr Allen said. "I could feel it with my tongue but not my finger. It wasn't until it moved to my lip that I could see it and was willing to talk to someone other than my wife and confess this was in my body.

Mr Allen, who studies invertebrates, has become a parasite expert by default after the experience – and he was forced to remove the creature himself in his bathroom after being dismissed by doctors, he writes in The Journal of Tropical Medicine.

A doctor referred him to an oral surgeon for help, but despite Mr Allen bringing photos of his cheek and mouth as well as scientific papers about the parasite, the surgeon refused to believe there was a worm under the skin.

"The oral surgeon told me it was just normal discolouration in my mouth, and that he sees this all the time. That was a little bit disappointing to hear, because I clearly did not think he sees this all the time - I hope he doesn’t see this all the time," said Mr Allen.

Disappointed, Mr Allen decided to remove the worm himself, pulling it out of his cheek using forceps in his bathroom with the help of his wife.

Like any good scientist, he then set out to study the worm, which he now keeps in a jar. By chance, he discovered that a neighbour who works at the university’s medical school was an expert on this type of parasite. After running tests, the neighbour confirmed the worm was in fact ‘gongylonema pulchruma’, which usually lives in livestock.

The bizarre case was just the 13th incident of this type of parasitic infection of humans the US, and the 60th in the world.